Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shows off his costume as Clark Kent, alter ego of comic book superhero Superman, as he walks through the House of Commons, in Ottawa on Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2017. Adrian Wyld / THE CANADIAN PRESS

It sounds like a gathering of the angels.

Some of Canada’s top environmentalists are in Banff, Alta. this weekend alongside academics, leading legal minds and First Nations leaders to discuss indigenous rights and the environment.

Too bad their starting point has been found to be a a corrupt scam.

The “Indigenous Solutions for Environmental Challenges” conference will feature luminaries such as David Suzuki, Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame and former chief of the Assembly of First Nations Phil Fontaine.

David Suzuki was criticized for claiming an increase in cyclones has contributed to the decay of the Great Barrier Reef off Australia’s coast.Chris Young /
The Canadian Press

They plan to discuss a long running court case out of Ecuador and its impact on Indigenous rights and the environment around the world.

The case in question is called Aguinda v. Chevron, a lawsuit brought against the multi-national oil company over claims of environmental damage dating back decades.

It was a class action lawsuit was launched in Equador in 1993 against Chevron alleging the multinational oil firm, which bought oil fields developed earlier by Texaco, polluted Ecuadorian rivers and rain forests and caused environmental and health damage to local farmers and indigenous tribesmen.

In 2011, an Ecuadorian judge ordered Chevron to pay the claimants $18 billion, though on appeal that judgment was reduced to $9.5 billion.

Eventually, the case landed before the United States Court of Appeals, which determined the $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron was corrupt, that the claims of environmental damage had been inflated and the judgment had been achieved through “coercion, bribery, money laundering and other misconduct.”

One of the lawyers behind the case, New York City based Steven Donziger, is an invited speaker at the Banff conference this weekend.

I’m not sure I should actually call Donziger a lawyer anymore since he had his licence pulled by the State of New York earlier this year for “professional misconduct” due to coercion, fraud and bribery in the very case this conference is discussing.

He’s denied wrongdoing and suggested allegations against him are part of a Chevron campaign to “vilify him.”

Meanwhile, Canada’s leading luminaries of the left are holding a conference to talk about a court case that has been found to be corrupt and fraudulent by a United States court.

It was a repudiation of Donziger’s work to get a court in Ecuador to award an $8.6 billion US settlement against Chevron. The American court found not only corruption in the Ecuadorian courts, including bribes, but that the plaintiffs had written parts of the judgment themselves.

They fabricated evidence of environmental harm, the court found, and given the size of the award they initially won, their motives seem clear.

This is what Canada’s elites will rally around this weekend in Banff.

Did I mention that the conference is sponsored by the Government of Canada? That major companies such as Royal Bank, think tanks like the Centre for International Governance Innovation are behind it?

I did mention Phil Fontaine.

Canada’s Prime minister Justin Trudeau (C) delivers a speech during a ceremony in tribute to Canadian soldiers killed during the First World War at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, on November 10, 2018 in Vimy, on the eve of commemorations marking the 100th anniversary of the 11 November 1918 armistice, ending World War I.FRANCOIS LO PRESTI /
AFP/Getty Images

He’s on Donziger’s payroll.

According to a contract, now public, Fontaine will act as a consultant to help get the judgment enforced and in return will have his expenses paid and get a cut of the massive settlement.

So of course he will moderate some sessions at the conference and will speak at others.

He’s also speaking because his partner, Kathleen Mahoney, a law professor at the University of Calgary who according to the conference website is one of the organizers.

Mahoney wrote to Donziger offering to set up the conference to “bring significant pressure to bear on Chevron” in order to get a settlement.

Part of the strategy that Donziger is using to get his corrupt Ecuadorian judgment enforced is bring legal actions in other countries including Canada that Chevron operates in and try to use that to extract money or freeze assets.

Thus the interest in Canada, the contract for Fontaine and one would assume the offer by Fontaine’s partner Mahoney to organize a conference.

Could it be she might see benefits from Phil scoring a mega payday?

Hiring Phil Fontaine was a smart move. He has a great reputation and as a First Nations leader won’t be questioned by many in the media on environmental issues.

It also follows a pattern, one we have seen before, laid out in detail when a group of American billionaires laid out a plan to shut down Canada’s oil industry. Partner with local NGOs but more importantly, find an Indigenous person to be the face of the protest.

Too bad this protest is over a corrupt court ruling.

Since 2015, Chevron Canada has been fighting Donziger and his allied lawyers and social justice warriors in court against a foreign court ruling found to have been obtained by fraud and bribery.

Canada’s courts should throw out any further cases on this file and make clear this judgment won’t be enforced.

As for Trudeau’s government giving this case money and legitimacy by sponsoring it.

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